moment she appeared; but she ran off as hard as she could, and
soon found herself safe in a thick wood.

“The first thing I’ve got to do,” said Alice to herself, as she
wandered about in the wood, “is to grow to my right size again;
and the second thing is to find my way into that lovely garden. I
think that will be the best plan.” It sounded an excellent plan, no
doubt, and very neatly and simply arranged: the only difficulty
was, that she had not the smallest idea how to set about it; and,
while she was peering about anxiously among the trees, a little
sharp bark just over her head made her look up in a great hurry.
An enormous puppy was looking down at her with large round
eyes, and feebly stretching out one paw, trying to touch her. “Poor
little thing!” said Alice, in a coaxing tone, and she tried hard to
whistle to it; but she was terribly frightened all the time at the
thought that it might be hungry, in which case it would be very
likely to eat her up in spite of all her coaxing.

Hardly knowing what she did, she picked up a little bit of stick,
and held it out to the puppy: whereupon the puppy jumped into
the air off all its feet at once, with a yelp of delight, and rushed at
the stick, and made believe to worry it: then Alice dodged behind a
great thistle, to keep herself from being run over; and, the moment
she appeared on the other side, the puppy made another rush at
the stick, and tumbled head over heels in its hurry to get hold of it:
then Alice, thinking it was very like having a game of play with a
cart-horse, and expecting every moment to be trampled under its
feet, ran round the thistle again: then the puppy began a series of
short charges at the stick, running a very little way forwards each
time and a long way back, and barking hoarsely all the while, till at
last it sat down a good way off, panting, with its tongue hanging
out of its mouth, and its great eyes half shut.

This seemed to Alice a good opportunity for making her escape: so
she set off at once, and ran till she was quite tired and out of
breath, and till the puppy’s bark sounded quite faint in the
distance.

“And yet what a dear little puppy it was!” said Alice, as she leant
against a buttercup to rest herself, and fanned herself with one of
the leaves. “I should have liked teaching it tricks very much, if-if
I’d only been the right size to do it! Oh dear! I’d nearly forgotten
that I’ve got to grow up again! Let me see-how is it to be
managed? I suppose I ought to eat or drink something or other; but
the great question is ‘What?’” The great question certainly was
“What?” Alice looked all round her at the flowers and the blades of
grass, but she could not see anything that looked like the right
thing to eat or drink under the circumstances. There was a large